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Lots in store for NBA fans in the PH looking for quality content on TV or online.
Global sports and media company NBA announces a multiyear partnership with media network Cignal TV, Inc. and leading telecommunications company SMART to deliver quality content through free-to-air, satellite television and digital streaming.
“The NBA restart is set against a uniquely challenging moment in time for our fans in the Philippines, who are among the most passionate and dedicated NBA supporters in the world,” said NBA Asia Managing Director Scott Levy. “We are excited to partner with Cignal and Smart to bring NBA games to a nationwide audience, and we hope to play a role in lifting the spirits of Filipinos by bringing our fans together through their shared love of the game.”
Free-to-air channels TV5 and ONE Sports will broadcast live NBA games starting July 31 including four games every week. Both channels will air-select “seeding games” and playoffs through the first and second rounds. Meanwhile, the whole Conference Finals will be televised by both channels, but the 2020 NBA Finals can only be watched exclusively on TV5.
This partnership prompts Cignal to launch its localized NBA TV Philippines featuring live games and original programming in HD along with “The Game You Love is Home” campaign that will be available on select postpaid and prepaid HD plans. SMART will also live-stream NBA TV Philippines to its paid subscribers, along with expanding its premium live subscription service, the NBA League Pass. Fans can watch out for SMART’s relaunch of NBA.com/Philippines where fans can access game highlights, stats, scores, and exclusive features from sports journalists.


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Finally, after years of waiting and wondering, someone is getting off their ass and making a series effort to create a Ghostbutsters video game.
Daily Variety reports this morning that Vivendi Games have teamed with Sony Pictures and launched plans for the first of what they hope to be a series of games based on the characters made famous by the 1985 movie. The game, which is currently without a title, will take place in the 90’s, after the events of Ghostbusters II (which are better left unspoken of) and will feature the voice and likeness off all four principals; Ernie Hudson, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.
Terminal Reality (Aeon Flux, Bloodrayne 2) are working on the game for Xbox 360, PC and PS3, while Red Fly Studios (Mushroom Men) will turn out a version for PS2, Wii and DS, which will be aimed more directly at the younger demographic.
Hopefully, considering the talent behind these new games, we will be able to wash the tatste of past Ghostbusters video games out of our mouths and experience a legitimate franchise extension. Keep it here for more as we learn it!
Remind us who you gonna call in the Dread Central forums!

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The merger of two giants in the advertising industry, Omnicom and Publicis, announced in July, marked the creation of the largest ad company in the world.
It also forecasts a significant industry shift, as ad agencies’ primary focus transitions from writing creative copy to generating and selling consumer data for online ads. And it sets up the newly merged company to compete with the likes of Google and Facebook for user data to place ads, the New York Times reports.
Technology and consulting companies are increasingly bypassing traditional advertising agencies to develop ad and marketing campaigns directly with their clients.
The merger between Omnicom and Publicis is an attempt to stay relevant in this changing landscape. “Collecting Big Data and being able to turn it into insights is the ambition of both companies, and it will be the ambition of the single company,” said John Wren of Omnicom.
In addition to fighting to staying relevant in a changing landscape, the newly merged company faces the challenges typical a “merger of equals”—such as trying to balance personnel and assignments—in addition to navigating cultural differences between French Publicis and American Omnicom.


text: SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Priceline.com Inc. pcln were trading down 5% at $21.35 a share in after-hours trade Thursday following a regular session close of $22.35. Priceline.com reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $3.79 million, or 9 cents a share, down 24% from $5 million, or 12 cents a share, during the same period a year ago. Pro forma earnings were 28 cents a share for the quarter. Revenue at the Norwalk, Conn.-based online travel company rose to $203.9 million from $195 million a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $205 million. Priceline.com said it expects first-quarter pro forma earnings of 17 cents to 21 cents a share on revenue up 5% vs. a year ago. Analysts are currently looking for earnings of 29 cents a share on revenue of $256 million for the quarter. For 2006, the company said it sees pro forma per-share earnings of $1.50 to $1.65 and gross travel bookings of $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion.


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Microsoft’s latest Forza Horizon instalment has apparently had quite the leak recently. Thanks to Eurogamer and Imgur, the image leaked shows that we could expect some sort of Halo-themed mission in Forza Horizon 4.
Making things even more exciting is the fact that this mission seems to be themed around a classic Halo: Combat Evolved level, the Silent Cartographer! While this isn’t the first time fans will see the Warthog appearing in the Forza franchise (it first appeared in Forza Horizon 3) this IS the first time Forza has given us an entire Halo event.
The screenshot in question shows the Warthog on a beach, and in the background, you can easily spot the Halo ring as well as a Covenant ship. This screams Silent Cartographer. For those of you unfamiliar with the Halo franchise, all three of you, The Silent Cartographer was the fourth mission in Halo: Combat Evolved. It saw your character, Master Chief, traversing an island, some of the traversal involved navigating the island in a Warthog.
To make this story even juicier, back in July some fans spotted an icon on the Forza Horizon 4 map that very closely resembles a Pelican. Other fans actually downloaded the game a month earlier, in June, and datamined it, finding quite a few “Halo” labelled files.
Along with the reveal of the Warthog returning to Forza, other leaked images show a plethora of in-game events and cars, including vintage racers, David vs. Goliath, and a 1960’s collection.
While Microsoft has yet to comment on how much of this is true, the facts certainly seem strong enough to support the claims. Forza Horizon 4 is currently in development at Playground Games and set to launch on PC and Xbox One on October 2, 2018.
Are you excited for some Halo-themed racing events?! Be sure to let us know in the comments below!


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Ezra Dabah, the former chief executive and a current director of The Children's Place Retail Stores Inc., is considering making a bid for the retailer, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday.
Children's Place shares jumped 5.3%, to $25.18 in morning trading. During the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded in a range of $20.56 to $71.81.
Recently, the Secaucus, N.J.-based retailer has been hammered by a string of bad news, including Mr. Dabah's resignation in late September after a company probe found he had violated internal policies for securities trades.
On Friday, Children's Place shares rose on media reports that the company plans to put itself up for sale.
In Monday's filing, Mr. Dabah and his wife reported a 17.9% stake in the company and said they plan to contact potential private equity sponsors and strategic buyers about a possible acquisition offer. Mr. Dabah said he also may support a third party's proposal to acquire the company.
The former CEO said he plans to discuss strategies to maximize shareholder value with other stockholders, including a potential proxy solicitation to elect directors to the company's board.
Mr. Dabah, who has engaged Bear Stearns Cos. as a financial adviser, noted there is no guarantee he will implement any of these options.


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Original article: Sourcing Journal
Twin Dragon Marketing Inc. (TDMI) is doubling down on its commitment to ethical, transparent cotton sourcing.
“We believe it is crucial to address the topic of visibility and traceability in cotton sourcing, ”said Alexa Shibata, account executive and merchandising at TDMI. “We are committed to avoiding sourcing from regions associated with unethical practices, demonstrating our dedication to moral business conduct.”
In a continued effort to avoid unethical sourcing procedures, TDMI is an avid member of the reputable U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol (USCTP), an organization “setting a new standard” for more sustainably grown cotton.
This commitment is integral to its mission as a denim manufacturer, according to Stephanie Poon, director of marketing and merchandising at TDMI.
“We take pride in crafting fabrics that not only enhance the wearer’s confidence through their appearance and hand but also allow consumers to feel good about making a conscientious and ethical choice,” she said. “We are steadfast in our refusal to engage in any practices that exploit workers within the production chain and all our factories pass social audits ensuring responsible practices.”
Additionally, every item TDMI manufactures is traceable, from the fabric to the yarn down to the cotton. For customers seeking “peace of mind,” the Los Angeles-based manufacturer provides a certificate detailing the fabric’s production origin and the source of the cotton. This commitment not only addresses the concerns of its customers but also contributes to fostering a more responsible future, according to Poon. TDMI also uses diverse cotton sourcing practices, including post-industrial waste, recycled cotton, BCI cotton and pre and post-consumer waste, all with Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) certification.
“By assuring our customers that we support regions with ethical approaches, we actively contribute to sustainable development, promoting social and economic well-being,” she said.
In addition to responsibly sourcing its cotton, TDMI utilizes Textile Genesis—a textile supply chain traceability platform powered by technology provider Lectra—to connect with brands and upload traceable cotton data for the fabric it ships. Textile Genesis allows the apparel industry to enable brands looking to achieve their sustainability goals and supply chain transparency with a fully-digital mapping of their textiles.
“Since implementing Textile Genesis in 2022, we’ve been able to verify the origin of fibers, giving our customers a clear picture of where all the materials are coming from,” Poon said.
While TDMI has taken substantial steps toward transparent cotton sourcing, the manufacturer has no plans to slow down these efforts anytime soon.
“Along with integrating various eco-friendly cotton options, we will be offering a new cotton initiative next year,” said Poon. “We anticipate that more of our customers will embrace this, pushing our sustainability endeavors forward. Exact details will be disclosed when we are ready to launch, so stay tuned.”


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Malaysia's multicultural population helps to explain why it has taken Courts Malaysia 20 years to select an official brand ambassador since the end of its relationship with its last one, popular local chanteuse Fauziah Latiff.
In comedian Harith Iskandar however, the electronics and furniture retailer has found someone unique. Unlike many Malaysian celebrities, Harith is popular with both the urban and rural populations as well as among all three of the nation’s three main ethnic groups.
“He not only has the charm and popularity of a celebrity but he brings a certain aspirational value to the brand,” commented Low Bee Yin, marketing director at Courts Malaysia. “His personality reaches out to customers who have grown up with our brand and know us but never really took the trouble to drop by.”
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In the past, noted Low, Harith has mostly appealed to Malaysia’s urban population. But in recent years his starring role in the a popular TV show, Lawak Ke Der, has helped him build a following among Malaysia’s more generally rural Malay populations.
As the new face of Courts, Harith fronts the brand’s largest nationwide campaign, “Senang Sahaja, Courts Ada” (Living easy with Courts). The US$6 million marketing effort stretches beyond a multi-platform campaign that includes TV, print, radio, online, outdoor and events to include store redesigns, a new ecommerce platform (to be launched later this year) and training for service staff.
The new push on marketing also includes a presence on Facebook, something the brand has tried in the past but pulled out of, and a TV partnership with Astro around comedy show Raja Lawak.
To handle creative, Courts engaged newly launched boutique agency DVG Media, founded by former Grey Group ECD David Sin, plus Mindshare to handle media and Ogilvy PR to manage communications. Courts has also engaged e-Bee Global Solutions to relaunch its ecommerce platforms. Vocanic has been engaged to manage the Facebook page.
Courts has a surprisingly long and tangled history. It was founded in the United Kingdom in 1850 but in 2004 it went into administration and today no longer has any operations in the UK. Its Caribbean operations were sold off to Regal Holdings Limited in 2006, and they exist independently of the chain of Courts stores in Southeast Asia, which is separately incorporated and headquartered in Singapore.
The store has existed in some form or another in Malaysia for 28 years and, as a result, has both the heritage of a household name and the baggage of all its prior incarnations. Fortunately, the new management, said Low, believes in the power of branding.
The recently launched long-term campaign’s goal is to promote not only Courts' new easy-to-shop-in stores and delivery services, but also to highlight the brand’s price guarantee. “Because we are so well known for offering hire-purchase terms, there is a perception that our products are not competitively priced,” explained Low. “But the ‘Courts promise’ means if you find the same product you’ve just purchased from us for a lower price elsewhere, we will refund the price difference up to three times.”
Communicating this point matters to Courts because while the hire-purchase scheme has attracted new household owners, it has been alienating the thrifty. This is especially true following the debut of Malaysia’s first goods and services tax (GST) on 1 April. “Immediately, there was a slowdown, even over the Hari Raya (Eid al-Fitr) period,” said Low. “But we, like many other retailers in Malaysia, were expecting this lull period as consumers take a step back and see how things are going before resuming their normal shopping habits.”
This period of reassessment, she added, made for an opportune time to refresh the brand with its price assurance, and to find a role in the Malaysian consumer’s life as a source for home products that were both affordable and good value.
|Low Bee Yin|
“This brand campaign has allowed us to show our emotional side, how we have been providing value to their lives through every key stage, first marriage, first child, first dream home and the latest digital gadget,” said Low. “This sets the stage.”
The campaign’s approach, Low continued, was based on consumer research. “Everyone is worrying about sustaining their lifestyles in the face of Malaysia’s rising cost of living. So our promise that you can 'Live easy with Courts' ties into a need.”
The tagline also plays well with the Malays, who form the majority of Courts’ consumers. “In Malay ‘hidup senang’ is a goal, or a dream in life," Low said. "To have a life of ease and without trouble." By raising the profile of Courts as a place to go to obtain value-for-money merchandise, the brand also hopes to grow its consumer base among Chinese and Indian Malaysians.
According to early evidence, the new marketing push may be working; three weeks after its launch, sales at the stores were back to pre-GST levels, Low said.


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A group of tech vendors gathered today at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Digital Content NewFronts luncheon to share recent insights, and there were several revelations about digital video.
"The scope is unprecedented," proclaimed Kurt Abramson, CEO of ShareThis.
Let's break out why Abramson is so enthusiastic with the following eight data points from the show:
1. The IAB recently worked with researcher GfK to survey 1,900 consumers and found that digital video consumption is up 13 percent since last year.
2. Twenty-four percent of respondents said they watch original video at least once a month, up from 22 percent in 2014.
3. Abramson said TV drives 11 percent of online shopping and creates 153 million social media signals a month. "With drama and sci-fi, a lot of sharing happens after [the show ends]," he said.
4. Reality and music-based TV generate 91 million social signals a month, according to Abramson, who also said 16 percent of people share on social media about the shows they watch. "It will be one to two years before we can measure how a non-linear TV audience reacts on social," the exec said.
5. Based on a Tremor Video survey of 1,000 people run by Magid Associates, 55 percent of households have four or more devices, while 40 percent have access to video streaming services. "Instead of couch potatoes, we have digital potatoes," said Ryan Van Fleet, Tremor Video's senior director of insights and analytics.
6. According to Van Fleet, 8 percent of respondents said they plan to cancel cable TV in the next 12 months, while 14 percent have no cable service now.
7. "And 70 percent have heard of HBO Now, which just [launched last month]," Van Fleet said.
8. Richard Kosinski, U.S. president of Unruly, said Coca-Cola's "Grandpa" video ads got an 8 percent share rate in a campaign that ran last year. "Ads that are emotional are twice as likely to be shared," he explained.


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WALSH: From pret-a-porter to Porta-Potty
It might be hard today to avoid potty humor.
After all, I’m writing about a remarkable feat in fashion — a wedding gown made entirely of toilet paper.
That’s right: To have, to hold, two ply.
This eye-catching dress comes with a furry hat and stole, a muff, slacks and long white gloves. They’re TP, too — all crafted by Susan Masarek Wilson of Oaklyn.
But even that stunning ensemble wasn’t enough to win a national contest that ended in Manhattan Thursday. Instead, for the second year in a row, Wilson placed among the Top 10 finalists for a competition hosted by Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com, a website that offers tips to budget-minded brides.
Wilson’s not crying over her gown’s also-ran status — which is good, because then she might have a meltage problem.
“As competitions go, this was a great one,” said Wilson, who seeks out opportunities to test her design talents. “The skill, the craftsmanship, it’s all extremely high.”
These paper dresses hardly compare to, say, hospital gowns, noted Laura Gawne, a partner in the website. “This year’s entries featured extraordinary fashion elements including embroidery, pleating, beads and lace!” she enthused.
Thursday’s finalists, chosen from some 1,500 competitors, were judged on “creativity, originality, beauty and the use of toilet paper,” according to the contest’s rules. And that toilet paper had to be Charmin, a contest sponsor.
Wilson, who had selected a kimono theme for her 2013 gown, turned to Eastern Europe for this year’s inspiration. “I went with a whole winter-wedding mountaintop look, sort of like a Russian bride,” she said.
In other words, a cross between “Dr. Zhivago” and Doctor, I Gotta Go.
This year’s gown consumed about 26 rolls of toilet paper and about three months of Wilson’s time — “once I figured out how to do it.”
The dresses had to be assembled with tape, glue and/or needle and thread. No snaps, no buttons, no zippers, no clasps.
“It was a lot of trial and error,” said the 55-year-old mother of three, who’s designed actual wedding gowns for family and friends. “It’s not the easiest medium, and you really don’t want to spill anything. It’s quite absorbent.
“Most of the rolls went into the ‘fur’ (on the hat and stole), which I cut by hand one strip at a time. That was the most time-consuming part, too.”
On Thursday, models literally sweated out the final judging at an open-air restaurant atop a hotel.
“There was a lot of dampness and humidity,” said Wilson, who was accompanied by her model, Turquoise Cobb of Barrington. “But we knew after this, we were done (with the dresses).”
The gowns, she said, now go on to Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums.
And here’s one thing I can’t believe: With all that creativity on tap, no one apparently thought of the one accessory I’d consider a must-have.
That would be a festive strip of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of the bride’s shoe.
Jim Walsh’s column runs Fridays. Reach him at firstname.lastname@example.org or (856) 486-2646.


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Edeka Takes Customer Satisfaction Honour In ‘Kundenmonitor Deutschland’
Edeka has been named the supermarket with the highest level of customer satisfaction, according to the Kundenmonitor Deutschland 2017, which is published annually by ServiceBarometer AG, a group that monitors customer service levels.
Edeka also led the way in the hypermarket category, the study found. Some 6,400 customers were interviewed for the part of the study relating to the food sector, out of a total of 28,000 interviews.
"Our customers' feedback is the key measure of quality for us. That is why I am particularly pleased with this result, "said Markus Mosa, Edeka chief executive. "Our independent retailers have proven themselves once again to be able to delight their customers with top services."
Among the areas in which Edeka scored highly in the Supermarket category were ‘Design/Atmosphere’ and ‘Technical Information’.
In the Hypermarket category, it scored highly in the category of ‘Inspiration’, with 84% of respondents saying that the Edeka hypermarket format inspires them.
Elsewhere, Aldi Nord placed first in the Discount category, as well as performing strongest in terms of price-performance ratio.
"We are pleased that the many changes we have implemented at Aldi Nord have been so well received by our customers,” said Aldi marketing representative Kay Rüschoff.
ServiceBarometer AG has been operating the Kundenmonitor Deutschland for more than 20 years.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.


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The Gold Coast Fashion Show website was created to provide event information, drive ticket sales, and capture corporate sponsors for the show. The MNML team designed and executed a new brand vision for 2021, a modern layout with gold accents and fashion illustrations by Kristine Steiner.
Getting the word out was a critical part of the campaign leading up to the fashion show. In addition to the website, the MNML team developed print materials to promote the event.
Additional assets were created for event badges, show programs, and print ads.
MNML also created an email template for the Gold Coast Fashion Show team to ensure the brand stayed consistent across communication channels.


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According to Wall Street Journal, Nintendo told outside game developers that it was delaying the rollout of 64-gigabyte game cards for the Nintendo Switch until 2019. The campaign is what shipped on the game card, and multiplayer was a separate download. At the very least, we might see Nintendo take advantage of the extra space afforded next year.
Nintendo now offers cartridges in capacities of 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB.
Nintendo has already sold over 10 million Switch consoles, meaning developers could continue to flock to the platform, regardless.More news: Tied Va. House race to be decided next week
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The WSJ explains that Nintendo had initially planned to make the 64GB carts available during the second half of 2018, but has been forced to move that date due to technical issues.
By comparison, Blu-ray discs for the PS4 and Xbox One can hold 50 GB of data. With games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey hitting best of 2017 lists left and right, it's jam-packed with great games and ports of other titles that people have clamored for.
Nintendo reportedly won't offer 64-gigabyte game cards for Switch until 2019.
The Wall Street Journal's source told them that some software makers, particularly US -based publishers making data-heavy games, were disappointed.
IGN has reached out to Nintendo for comment.


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Toshiba has announced the latest generation of BiCS FLASH, its 3D flash memory. The latest version is a 64 layer device that incorporates 3bit/cell technology, enabling 256Gbit to be stored. Toshiba says its next target is a 512Gbit device, also with 64 layers.
Previously, Toshiba was producing a 48 layer device and the move to 64 layers is said to provide 40% more capacity in the same chip size, along with a lower cost per bit. Applications are expected to include enterprise and consumer solid state drives, smartphones, tablets and memory cards.
The 64 layer devices will be manufactured in New Fab 2 at Yokkaichi Operations, which was opened officially earlier this month. Mass production is scheduled to start in the first half of 2017.


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T-Mobile is the smallest national US carrier, and it was also the last to announce a cogent strategy for the deployment of 4G LTE. Yes, after years of insisting to no end that HSPA+ is 4G, the magenta carrier is rolling out LTE. As part of that move, new phones are going to be needed. The first device designed for T-Mobile's LTE is a revamped version of the popular Samsung Galaxy S III.
Break out the popcorn, folks, it's time for some corporate drama. As we reported last month, LTE service provider Clearwire is looking to sell itself, with 50% stake holder Sprint Nextel the obvious choice. But while Sprint's $2.2 billion offer (plus another $800 million in staggered investments) sits on the desks of both Clearwire shareholders and the Federal Trade Commission for approval, satellite TV provider Dish Network has made another offer.
Drop this one in the "noteworthy, but not notable" bucket, but we had some time last night to check out AT&T's Pantech Discover, a phone with a pretty impressive specification sheet given its price point - just $50 on contract.
The Discover has a 4.8" 720p display, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 16GB of internal storage, 12.6MP rear camera, LTE, and runs Android 4.0 (OK, that's a bit of a miss). While we wouldn't call this a groundbreaking device in and of itself, the price AT&T will be peddling this particular piece of hardware at is going to make it a very attractive option for the brick-and-mortar crowd (eg, your parents).
Hey Rogers guys – did you think HTC forgot about you? Turns out they didn't, as the Android 4.1 update is making its way to your variant of the One X as I type this. Exciting, no?
The update – which should clock in at around 635MB – brings all sorts of goodies to the flagship device, including Sense 4+, Google Now, Project Butter, and... some more stuff. Unfortunately, there's nary a changelog in sight so we can't tell you exactly what else to expect.
If you have Sprint's version of the LG Optimus G, you may want to head into Settings > About phone and see if the latest OTA is available on your handset. The update – which bumps the device up to build LS970ZV9 – is just a small one that brings a couple of fairly minor enhancements to the device:
Visual Voicemail update
This just started rolling out today, so don't stress if it's not yet available to you.
Movies are fantastic. Not all movies, per se – but the idea of movies. They can transport us into other worlds, get to visit places we may never otherwise see, have the chance to relive world-changing events, and so much more all from the comfort of a seat. With that – have you seen Texas Chainsaw 3D? It's definitely worth watching.
But I digress. This isn't about my obsession with the TCM series, oh no – it's about AT&T.
Pantech hasn't been going after the bigger manufacturers in the "superphone" category, at least outside of its home turf of South Korea. Until today, that is - at its CES press conference, AT&T announced the Pantech Discover, a flagship-class device that meets and in some cases beats the best that Samsung, HTC and Motorola have to offer. In addition to somewhat typical high-end specs like a 4.8-inch 720p screen, 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and 16GB of on-board memory, the Discover boasts a best-in-class camera (at least on paper) of 12.6 megapixels.
Welcome to Android Police's live coverage of the 2013 AT&T Developer Summit keynote. I know, a carrier keynote? Why? But you may be surprised to learn that AT&T used this event last year to announce six Android devices. Yeah, so this one might actually be kind of important. Definitely expect to see some new AT&T Android hardware (we aren't exactly expecting six devices, but hey, you never know), and follow along with the liveblog below.
If you want to use Sprint's network without signing a contract, there are a lot of options out there, including its subsidiary Boost Mobile, the American MVNO Virgin, and hybrid provider Republic Wireless, among others. Sprint hopes that there are at least some prepaid customers left out there, because starting on January 25th, it will be offering its service in contract-free flavors.
In this age of tiered data plans, an unlimited option is increasingly hard to come by. Well, little T-Mobile is looking to attract more customers by offering just that – an new unlimited data plan. The carrier already offers an unlimited option on its contract plans, but now that tier is being extended to its popular Monthly4G prepaid service.
The offering will come in at $70 per-month and replace the current $70 Unlimited talk/text and 5GB data plan.


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The climate talks in Paris in December this year are viewed as a last chance for the world’s governments to commit to binding targets that might halt our march towards catastrophe. But in the countdown to Paris, many of these same governments have signed or are pushing a raft of ambitious trade and investment deals that would pre-empt measures that they could take to deal with climate change (see box 1).
What we know of these deals so far, from the few texts that have leaked out of the secretive negotiations, is that they will lead to more production, more trade and more consumption of fossil fuels – at a time of global consensus on the need for reductions.1 In particular, the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are expected to result in increased EU reliance on fossil fuel imports from North America, as well as a restriction of policy space to promote low carbon economies and renewables. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a mega-pact involving 14 countries in Asia and the Americas that was concluded earlier this month, is expected to result in more gas exports from the US to the Pacific Rim countries. The new deals will also extend investor-state dispute settlement provisions which companies are already using through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to reverse moratoriums on fracking and other popular environmental measures implemented by governments.2
Less has been said about how the provisions dealing with food and agriculture in these deals will affect our climate. But the question is vital, because food and farming figure hugely in climate change. From deforestation to fertiliser use, and from factory farms to supermarket shelves, producing, transporting, consuming and wasting food account for around half of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).3 Since creating new channels for the flow of farm goods and changing regulatory and investment regimes for agribusiness and the food industry are high priorities in the current deals, there will undoubtedly be impacts on climate change – and likely negative ones, unless we do something about it.
We see seven main ways through which the food and agriculture components of today’s trade and investment deals will make the climate crisis worse.
1. Increasing production, trade and consumption of foods that are big emitters of greenhouse gases
Trade deals, on the face of it, are meant to increase trade. This includes trade in food.
The foods that make the biggest contribution to climate change are: red meat (worst: beef, lamb and pork), dairy (worst: butter and cheese, followed by milk and eggs), fish (worst: wild caught or industrially farmed), poultry, palm oil and highly processed foods (worst: those that are airfreighted). Of course, these are sweeping generalisations. There are a lot of studies that try to measure the precise GHG emissions from different foods depending on where and how they are produced.4 But roughly, the picture is what we see in graph 1.
Data: Environmental Working Group, "Meat eater’s guide to climate change and health", 2011"
In terms of agricultural production, meat and dairy are the biggest contributors to climate change (see box 2). Only 11% of all meat produced is traded internationally, but globally speaking, meat production and consumption are projected to rise by 17% by 2024 and outright double by 2050.5 Increased trade is expected to a play a role in that growth and some of this will come from the newest trade agreements, which could shift current meat trade dynamics quite a bit.6 Of course, we cannot predict how much trade and consumption will grow as a direct result of these deals, but the tariff cuts and lower standards are expected to lead to increased supplies and therefore consumption in importing countries. That, after all, is what the industry lobbies are aiming for.
Take, for example, the TTIP. If it is signed, it is going to expand the European market for US beef, both high- and low-quality. (Quotas for hormone-free beef will go up, while sanitary restrictions are going down.7) European quality beef may not be able to compete, leading to a displacement of production to the US. Under CETA, Canada will be sending more pork, beef and dairy to Europe, while the EU will be exporting more cheese to Canada.
The recently concluded China-Australia free trade agreement (ChAFTA) is expected to play an important role in increased dairy production and trade in the Asia-Pacific region. China imports about 20% of its dairy products and those imports are steadily rising.8 Until now, because of the China-New Zealand trade deal, New Zealand dominated China’s foreign dairy supply. Now Australia is expected to take some of that market. At the same time, Chinese companies themselves are investing heavily in offshore dairy production in Australia for export back to China.9 They are also expanding their beef production base in New Zealand for export home.10
China’s surging beef imports, which currently are permitted from just a handful of countries, grew by 18% in the first half of 2015.11 Australia now accounts for nearly half of that market because of ChAFTA.12 Thanks to the China-New Zealand deal, China is the biggest buyer of New Zealand lamb and the second biggest buyer of New Zealand beef.
If TTIP is signed, it is going to expand the European market for US beef (Photo: Mishka Henner)
Dairy trade was a very contentious issue in the TPP negotiations – one that reportedly held up the conclusion of the deal. Now that the deal has been concluded, Washington calls the US farm industry “the big winner” in the TPP, as not only US dairy exports are expected to grow significantly but also US beef and pork.
Tariffs and quotas aside, markets are also expected to grow for certain agribusiness companies and their investors due to the watering down of food safety regulations and labelling laws as a result of these new deals.13 This is an important concern for farmers and consumers in quite a number of countries whose governments are negotiating. Unfortunately, despite statements from political leaders that nothing will change, many of the regulatory changes being pushed for by agribusiness giants involve lowering standards for chemicals, opening markets to cloned meat or genetically modified foods, and dropping disease-related barriers against poultry (avian flu) and beef (mad cow). Under the TPP, we now know that the US government secured the right to challenge other countries’ food safety standards and to set new norms for the presence of genetically modified organisms in foods.14 This will surely expand the US food industry’s reach, globally.
2. Promoting industrial farming for export over local farms and food systems
Broiler chickens, which are raised for their meat, produce seven times more greenhouse gas emissions than backyard birds. (Photo: Roibu/Alamy)
Expansion of markets for European poultry and milk powder has long been a key facet of the EU’s trade liberalisation agendas, as African farmers and livestock keepers know. They have been mobilising to stop the dumping of highly subsidised chicken and excess dairy from Europe since years. These struggles are now more and more connected to climate change. Industrial poultry, after all, are an important source of greenhouse gas emissions. Broilers, which are raised for their meat, produce seven times more GHG emissions than backyard birds. And layers, which are raised for their eggs, produce four times more.15
Chicken consumption is rising in many countries because it is a low-cost meat, and therefore global poultry trade is expected to increase. All of this trade comes from industrial poultry farms, which are higher emitting than backyard or small-scale operations. Brazilian and EU poultry farms are relatively highest on the climate-unfriendliness scale, mostly attributed to their reliance on soybeans.16 Even in China, where exports are just a small fraction of the country’s production, trade deals are leading to increased imports of feed materials which serve the factory farms that are built with increased levels of foreign investment.
Beyond poultry, experts now say that over the next ten years, increased global meat consumption will raise overall greenhouse gas emissions regardless of improved feed-to-meat conversion ratios in industrial production systems.17
3. Boosting global supermarkets and highly processed foods
The biggest names in food retail are aiming for growth in Asia, as well as Africa and Latin America, through several of today’s new trade agreements. The expansion of global supermarkets brings with it the expansion of processed food production, trade and consumption. For example, under NAFTA, processed food consumption has skyrocketed in Mexico, bringing with it serious public health problems, and the country’s retail sector has been taken over by large global chains.18
Processed foods – produced by Mondelez, Nestle, Pepsico, Danone, Unilever and the like – are important greenhouse gas emitters, not only because of all the energy used in packaging, processing and transporting the foods, but also because of the emissions generated on the farm. Processed foods are constructed out of the cheapest raw materials that companies can source from around the globe. One package of standard supermarket food can contain powdered milk from New Zealand, maize from the US, sugar from Brazil, soybeans from Argentina and palm oil from Indonesia – all foods that are high on the emissions scale.
One recent study of a box of Kellogg’s breakfast cereal found that eating a 100 gramme serving generates the equivalent of 264 grammes of CO2. Add milk to the cereal and the emissions go up by two to four times.
The ingredients accounted for about half the total emissions form the cereal, while manufacturing, packaging and transport contributed the rest. The researches identified over 20 countries from which the ingredients were sourced, including maize from Argentina, milk powder from the EU, rice from Egypt and Thailand, wheat from Spain and sugar from the US.19
The growth of supermarkets and processed foods also means increased deforestation, and other changes in land and water use, to produce more sugar, maize, soybeans and palm oil – four products that form the backbone of the processed food sector. For example, in Nigeria, Wilmar, the largest palm oil trading company in the world, plans to expand its oil palm plantations in Cross River State and this, groups on the ground say, will inevitably mean new deforestation. Through its trade agreements with the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), India has become a major market for Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil, displacing coconut, mustard, groundnut, sesame and other traditional Indian vegetable oils, which were far less damaging to the climate. The same goes for China, the second largest market for ASEAN palm oil after India.
The just-concluded TPP may bring an important upswing in palm oil production, trade and use. “I expect there to be quite a stampede of foreign investment in Southeast Asia when the final text of the agreement is published,” Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre, told The Wall Street Journal.20 Specifically, Malaysia’s palm oil sector is supposed attract a lot of this stampede, as investors jump in to lock down a new cheap source of oil for the US fast food industry.21
4. Climate cheating: the outsourcing of emissions
One of the effects of trade deals is that manufacturing is being outsourced to low wage countries with few environmental restrictions. The countries where these products are consumed thus appear to have reduced emissions when really those emissions have simply been transferred to the countries where the goods are now produced. As we see in the case of the US and China, neither country then wants to take responsibility. The same happens with foods.
Trade agreements favour food production in countries with low cost and/or heavily subsidised production, with high emissions levels. These countries have powerful industrial agriculture lobbies (US, Brazil, New Zealand, Europe) and are often heavily reliant on agriculture exports for their foreign revenues (US, Brazil, New Zealand, Ireland, Indonesia, New Zealand, Vietnam). It is highly unlikely that these countries will implement any measures to reduce emissions that might impinge on the competitiveness of their agricultural commodities. Already we see these countries moving with their companies to head off international efforts to make significant emissions cuts to agriculture, for instance with the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture.
The emissions imported with the foods are not likely to be accounted for by the importing country either. Even if an importing government were to try, measures to reduce imports of certain high greenhouse gas emitting commodities could be challenged as unfair trade restrictions under the new deals.
5. More biofuels
The just-concluded TPP may bring an important upswing in palm oil production, trade and use.
Biofuels are another form of polluting energy which, along with fossil fuels, may get a boost from the latest trade deals. This is especially when investment chapters of trade deals try to “level the playing field” for foreign investors by establishing rules on “national treatment” and “most favoured nation”, which makes access to land for the production of biofuels much easier. New patenting rules imposed through these deals also make it easier for corporations to engage in technology transfer, knowing that they will enjoy monopoly rights in the signatory countries. Already, EU climate policies have bolstered massive land grabbing in Africa for the production of ethanol for European markets. China, which currently sources ethanol from so-called free trade agreement partners Pakistan and Vietnam, is also investing heavily now in Brazil for this very purpose (a first ever shipment of Brazilian ethanol for China just left South America). The Canadian biofuel industry expects to gain a new C$50 million market opening in the EU thanks to CETA.22 Many biofuel crops – sugar cane, sugar beet, sweet potato, oil palm, maize, sorghum, oilseed rape – can be interchangeably used in the food industry, too.
If the TTIP agreement between the US and the EU goes through, modellers say that the US will see a big increase in bioethanol and biodiesel production and exports to the EU who, conversely, will see a big rise in its sugar production and exports to the US.23 The knock-on effects in Brazil, Argentina and China will be important, too.
Despite its poor scorecard in terms of human rights, land rights and carbon emissions, biofuel production is expected to be increasingly promoted as a renewable energy under climate mitigation strategies, and trade and investment deals will be facilitating this.
6. The promotion of local food economies undermined
“Buy national” or “buy local” programmes as well as country-of-origin labelling regulations, are generally considered discriminatory and trade distorting under so-called free trade doctrine. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) did little to discourage these initiatives, but new fangled bilateral and regional trade deals could go much further. The EU particularly wants to gain much more access, for European companies, to US public markets at all levels (federal, state, local) under TTIP. Food sovereignty advocates and practitioners see this as a potential threat to local food economies that groups have been painstakingly building over the last decades (e.g. food policy council initiatives to support the use of local foods in public services like schools and hospitals).24 Any moves to make “go local” or “use local” illegal in the food sector will automatically result in increased climate destabilisation.25
The same is true of initiatives to support “green” purchasing or programmes to require purchasing from small- and medium-sized enterprises in the name of mitigating climate change. Both of these types of effort can be contested by companies as discriminatory. Free trade agreements and investment treaties typically have an investor-state dispute mechanism that allows companies to challenge governments policies like these. Sometimes the challenge results in huge financial compensation for the company on the losing end of such laws. Sometimes it causes governments to change policy to avoid such lawsuits.
Just like in the energy sector, we need to address consumption to address climate change. Increasing production and trade, or just making it greener, will not alleviate the problem. Since governments agree that 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock and that 74% of these come from beef and dairy, we have a great opportunity to positively eliminate a big part of the climate problem through local initiatives. But to do this, we need to defeat the trade deals and ideology that claim that promoting “local” economies is anti-free market and somehow bad for us. (It is only bad for the multinationals!)
7. Food security measures made illegal
In 2013, governments prodded by corporate interests, mainly coming from the US, tried to make it a WTO rule that public procurement of food stuffs in times of crisis should be considered a form of trade-distorting farm subsidy. Many governments purchase farm products from farmers to stabilise markets, provide guaranteed prices and run stockpiles or distribution systems in the public interest. The ravages cause by climate change – floods, drought, typhoons, etc – in a world of deregulation and corporation concentration make food shocks more common and more threatening. That means these basic food security measures and strong public procurement programme are more and more needed. Ironically, as soon as the Paris climate talks end in December, governments will fly to Nairobi for a WTO ministerial meeting to decide whether such measures will be considered lawful or not under the global trade regime.
Time to stop destabilising the climate!
We have a great opportunity to positively eliminate a big part of the climate problem through local food systems. (Photo: Greenpeace Philippines)
Food consumption patterns are shifting. The Western diet is spreading, particularly in the global South, bringing with it problems of health but also increasing climate pressure. (Some people say we need diet change, not climate change.) Commodity traders, agribusiness firms, retail chains, private equity groups and other kinds of corporations that finance and run the industrial food system have a keen interest in expanding business in those very markets. Trade agreements are a great tool to do that, but it’s not just a North-South affair. Brazilian companies are competing with Thai counterparts for emerging market shares in Africa, Russia or the Middle East. Australia wants a bigger part of the action in China who is doing more business with the US. And so on.
We have to wake up and do the math. If we want to deal with climate change, we have to cut consumption of some foods and that means cutting production and trade as well. Luckily, it is quite do-able. But it does require a structural scaling back of “Big Food” and “Big Retail” and those who finance them. Instead, small- and medium-sized farms, processing and markets, supported by public procurement and financing, could do the job better. It requires a push, and bringing the different struggles around climate change together with the struggles for food sovereignty and against corporate-driven trade agreements.
What to do?
- Join the growing campaigns against major trade deals like TTIP, TPP, RCEP, TiSA and CETA. See bilaterals.org for links to key groups and more information.
- Start a focused campaign on trade, climate and food, to show how trade deals your government is negotiating will specifically affect greenhouse gas emissions from food and get them stopped
- Raise the issue of food and food trade in local discussions and actions you’re involved in to battle climate change. Come to Paris for the mobilisations outside the COP21. There will be a “trade” bloc in the street march, demanding a stop to TTIP and CETA and other newfangled trade deals. And there will be a day of action on 9 December dedicated entirely to food, agriculture and climate change.
- Use your imagination to develop concrete initiatives to reduce (y)our reliance on the industrial food system and shrink demand for their products. Start a boycott action – this is what food industry leaders fear most.
- Get more aware about the climate impact of the foods you eat and initiate, join or strengthen a local food initiative, be it a coop, school programme, an AMAP (Association for the maintenance of peasant agriculture), a CSA (Community-supported agriculture scheme), farmers’ market…
Key mega deals being negotiated today
CETA: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada. The negotiations were completed in 2014, but the text still needs to be ratified. There is talk of still tweaking some of the language on investor protection, given the scale of public outcry about it.
FTAAP: Free Trade Area of Asia and the Pacific, a trade pact that aims to cover all member states of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Was originally floated by the US but now is championed by China as a counterweight to the TPP (which excludes China). Negotiations have not yet begun.
TiSA: Trade in Service Agreement, a very significant pact being secretly negotiated among 40 countries outside the World Trade Organisation. Aims to set new global standards for trade in services for all future trade deals.
TTIP or TAFTA: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the US. Is under negotiation but massively contested by civil society.
TPP or TPPA: Trans-Pacific Partnership, recently concluded among 14 countries on both sides of the Pacific (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, US, Vietnam). Will need to be ratified by national parliaments.
RCEP: Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a trade agreement between the ten member Association of Southeast Asia Nations (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and six neighbours: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. Currently be negotiated behind closed doors.
The elephant – er, lamb? – in the room
The meat industry is perhaps the biggest single cause of climate change. The data vary, are debated and may be distorted. For example, there is a tendency in some corners to present super industrialised cattle operations in the US or Western Europe as being more "climate friendly" than sustainable grazing systems in India or Niger. That is because agencies like FAO tend to use a narrow lens of "efficiency" to make the comparison and they don’t factor in the positive climate contributions from sustainable grazing systems in Asia or Africa. Even the IPCC, which produces much of "the science" that people rely on to judge and act on climate change, gets it wrong sometimes. Still, there is no reason to doubt that raising or capturing animals for food is one of the biggest causes of climate change.
Some key facts worth chewing on:
- According to one often cited but highly criticised study by FAO, put out in 2006, livestock are responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers from the World Bank, writing for the Worldwatch Institute in 2009, put it at 51%. In 2013, FAO reduced their figure to 15%. Either way, it’s big – more than all forms of transportation (air, car, ship) combined.
- Two-thirds (65%) of livestock emissions comes from beef (35%) and dairy (30%) production alone, FAO reported in 2013.26 World dairy production is responsible for 4% of all global GHG emissions.
- One quarter of the earth’s land mass is used for grazing and nearly half of all crops that we produce (40%) – which produce GHGs as well – is fed to livestock.
- Livestock contribute to climate change not so much in terms of carbon emissions but in terms of methane (from ruminant digestion systems = 47% of their emissions) and nitrous oxide (from the fertiliser used to produce their feed + animal waste = 24% of livestock emissions). Methane and nitrous oxide are far more dangerous for our climate than carbon dioxide. In fact, recent data from the University of Minnesota, Yale and USDA suggests that the IPCC have been underestimating N2O emissions from industrial crop production – much of this to produce animal feed – by 40%.
Take into account the general thinking that the world’s meat and dairy consumption are projected to double by 2050, and one can see this is a serious and growing problem.
The good news is that we can do something about this, and relatively quickly. Cutting back on meat and dairy production, consumption and trade would be an effective and realistic way to reduce climate chaos. Compared to carbon, methane is a lot easier and a lot faster to "clean up" from the atmosphere. As to nitrous oxide, a contraction and restructuring of the meat industry towards small scale and local systems could do away with a lot of the fertiliser that is currently being used to produce feed.
We don’t have to all go vegan, but if we want to address climate change we have to take some very serious action towards the meat industry on a systemic and international scale. It’s not enough to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels.
(It’s important to note that FAO data on GHG emissions from livestock is produced with input from people from the meat and dairy industry: the International Poultry Council, International Feed Industry Federation, International Meat Secretariat, International Egg Commission and…. Danone.)
1 See forthcoming reports from Corporate Europe Observatory, http://corporateeurope.org, as well as previous reports from Sierra Club, the Friends of the Earth network, CEO and others compiled at http://www.bilaterals.org/?+-climate-+
2 Peter Rossman, "Against the Trans-Pacific Partnership," Jacobin, 13 May 2015: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/trans-pacific-partnership-obama-fast-track-nafta/
4 We are not in a position to assess that data here, but hope to do so soon.
5 See OECD-FAO, Agricultural Outlook 2015, 1 July 2015, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/agr_outlook-2015-10-en. Seafood trade has already doubled in the last five years and become the most widely traded protein. For more info, see Rabobank, http://rabobank-food-agribusiness-research.pr.co/98495-seafood-a-myriad-of-globally-traded-aquatic-products
6 See the “expanded” meat chapter in OECD-FAO, op cit.
7 The allowed tonnage for hormone-free beef might be raised by perhaps 50,000 tonnes per year. This is a hypothetical that analysts are working with, reflecting what the EU offered Canada under CETA. http://capreform.eu/ttip-and-the-potential-for-us-beef-imports/
8 Ed Gannon and Simone Smith, China FTA: Australian dairy to win share from New Zealand”, Weekly Times, 26 May 2015, http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/dairy/china-fta-australian-dairy-to-win-share-from-new-zealand/story-fnkeqg0i-1227369585925; “China dairy sector”, CLAL.it, http://www.clal.it/en/?section=stat_cina
9 Chinese investors are not the largest foreign landholders in Australia but are buying or bidding for some of the country’s most significant cattle and dairy farm operations. See farmlandgrab.org.
10 See for example, Naomi Tajitsu and Charlotte Greenfield, China’s Bright to buy 50 pct stake in NZ meat processor, Reuters, 14 Sep 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/15/newzealand-silverfern-merger-idUSL4N11L1E820150915
11 “China’s agricultural imports in disarray”, Dimsums, 15 Aug 2015, http://dimsums.blogspot.fr/2015/08/chinas-agricultural-imports-in-disarray.html
12 ”Pengxin may buy two cattle farms in Australia”, China Daily, 2015-8-29, http://www.ecns.cn/business/2015/08-29/179146.shtml
13 See GRAIN, “Food safety in the EU-US trade agreement: going outside the box”, 10 Dec 2013, https://www.grain.org/e/4846 and FoEE, GRAIN, IATP and others, “EU-US trade deal threatens food safety”, 5 Feb 2015, https://www.grain.org/e/5129
14 Matthew Weaver, “Vilsack: TPP text available in next 30 days”, Capital Press, 6 October 2015, http://www.capitalpress.com/Nation_World/Nation/20151006/vilsack-tpp-text-available-in-next-30-days
15 Data are from FAO Global Livestock Environmental Assessment (GLEAM) report, “Greenhouse gas emissions from pig and chicken supply chains”, 2013, http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3460e/i3460e.pdf
16 Idem, Figure 36, page 55.
19 Harish Kumar Jeswani, Richard Burkinshaw, Adisa Azapagic, “Environmental sustainability issues in the food-energy-water nexus: Breakfast cereals and snacks”, Science Direct, April 2015, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550915000238
20 Jake Maxwell Watts, Kathy Chiu and Celine Fernandez, “Company stampede to Southeast Asia seen on Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact,” Wall Street Journal, 7 October 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/company-stampede-to-southeast-asia-seen-on-trade-pact-1444230531
21 Bernama, “TPP broadens market scope in US, say palm oil experts”, 7 October 2015, http://www.themalaymailonline.com/money/article/tpp-broadens-market-scope-in-us-say-palm-oil-experts
22 Government of Canada, “CETA: What has been said”,http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/ceta-aecg/benefits-avantages/quotes-citations.aspx
23 John Beghin, Jean-Christophe Bureau,and Alexandre Gohin, “The impact of an EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement on biofuel and feedstock markets”, J Working Paper 14-WP 552, November 2014, http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/dbs/pdffiles/14wp552.pdf
24 See Karen Hansen-Kuhn, “Local economies on the table: TTIP procurement update”, IATP, 13 November 2014, http://www.iatp.org/documents/local-economies-on-the-table
25 Not all “go local” initiatives in the food sector are better for the climate. But a lot are.
26 FAO, “Major cuts of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock within reach, Key facts and findings” 26 Sep 2013, http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/


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Desktop 3D printing has largely been the domain of extrusion-based machines like MakerBot's Replicator and homebrew RepRap designs.
While this process's print size, speed and quality have improved over time, it still lags behind the capabilities of pricier, professional stereolithography devices, where UV light cures incredibly thin layers of resin to create objects on par with manufactured goods.
Developing this type of printer at a consumer price point has thus far been an elusive goal, but a today trio of MIT grads with impressive backers announced a new machine, called the Form 1, that can potentially bring professional-grade 3D prints to the home workshop.
Formlabs, the group's company, comprises David Cranor, an electrical engineer with a passion for digital media; Maxim Lobovsky, an engineer and former project lead on the Fab@Home project; and Natan Linder, who previously co-founded an R&D centre for Samsung in Israel. Cranor explains that the three classmates noticed a huge gap in the market with no 3D printers between the high end of the hobby market at $3,500 (£2,100) and professional machines that start at $10,000 (£6,100), and realised "Designers couldn't afford the quality of product they needed to be effective."
With this insight, and their technical chops, they raised a round of seed funding from former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt; Media Lab director, Joi Ito; and Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus.
Utilising just $500,000 (£300,000) and less than a year's time, the team developed their printer's hardware, its specially formulated resins, and proprietary desktop software.
The Form 1 is a desktop-sized machine that creates professional-grade, light-cured 3D prints. Their prototype units are fully functional and Formlabs will finance manufacturing via a Kickstarter campaign that launches with today's announcement.
Initial backers will be able to pre-order the Form 1 for $2,299 (£1,400), though only 25 will be available at this price. Additional units are priced at $2,499 (£1,500) and $2,699 (£1,600), based on order of contribution.
Actual market pricing has not yet been released.
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While Kickstarter campaigns are wrought with delays and undelivered goods, Formlabs is attempting to circumvent that problem. They're preparing to meet their February 2013 shipping target by partnering with Dragon Innovation, the manufacturing consultancy that has helped the team behind the Pebble watch navigate the manufacturing process and has landed many clients' projects on the shelves at the Apple store.


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Unsealed court-settlement documents reveal banks stole $trillions' worth of houses: Back in 2012, the major US banks settled a federal mortgage-fraud lawsuit for $95,000,000. The suit was filed by Lynn Szymoniak, a white-collar fraud specialist, whose own house had been fraudulently foreclosed-upon. When the feds settled with the banks, the evidence detailing the scope of their fraud was sealed, but as of last week, those docs are unsealed, and Szymoniak is shouting them from the hills. The banks precipitated the subprime crash by "securitizing" mortgages -- turning mortgages into bonds that could be sold to people looking for investment income -- and the securitization process involved transferring title for homes several times over. This title-transfer has a formal legal procedure, and in the absence of that procedure, no sale had taken place. See where this is going?
Movie industry wants the right to take your house off the net without full judicial review: The motion-picture industry has spoken out against a New Zealand proposal to allow them to disconnect entire households from the Internet if one member is accused of copyright infringement; they want to be able to disconnect your Internet connection without giving you a chance to defend yourself in front of a judge because that would be "time consuming." Instead, they would like to be lord high executioner for your network connection, with the power to shut you out of the benefits of the network (freedom of speech, assembly and the press; access to school, health, family, work and government) without having to prove it in a real court of law.
Olympic brand-whoring attains new, shameful low: Penalties for buying the wrong product range from confiscation of your goods to being forced to wear your t-shirt logo-side-in. The worst of it is the steaming craopla from the IOC official who says "We have to protect official sponsors who have paid millions to make the Olympics happen." Oh, rilly? Or what? They won't sponsor the Olympics anymore?
One year Coins painted as fictional characters: Andre Levy, a designer in Frankfurt, likes to paint coins. Five years Britain seeks ban on glass pint-glasses to prevent bar-brawl injuries: The British Home Office is looking for proposals to make it harder to attack people with pint-glasses, including a mandate that all pint sleeves be made […]
One year Soviet plane-spotting head-gear: Drakegoodman scanned this 1917-ish photo of Soviet planespotters in exotic headgear; according to a commenter, the binox are focused at infinity “so that when you found the source of the sound by turning your head, you could see the aircraft creating that sound.” Five years Ralph Lauren opens new outlet […]
One year Better way to organize kids’ clothing departments: Ever since our daughter’s birth, my wife Alice and I have found ourselves shopping the “boys” section of the department stores for things like pyjamas and tees and rubber boots, this being the only way to get stuff that isn’t pink, covered in glitter, hypersexualized (you […]
Amazon’s Audible is hands-down the most popular place to find audiobooks. With its library of over 180,000 books, Audible has the biggest audiobook selection in the world, and a membership gets you a free book each month. You can sync Audible across multiple devices, so you’ll never lose your spot whether you’re on your computer or your phone.This […]
#1. A-Audio Legacy Noise Cancelling Headphones with 3-Stage Technology The A-Audio Legacy Headphones are the Boing Boing Store’s best seller this month, and it’s easy to see why. With 40mm drivers, powerful circuitry, and memory foam padded circumaural ear cups, these are clearly super high-quality headphones. Plus, the patented 3-Stage Technology lets you toggle between passive […]
Vaping is getting more mainstream by the day, which means there’s been an influx of quality yet affordable vaporizers on the market. We’re particularly excited about the APX Wax Vaporizer Kit, which is an easy-to-use, high-quality vape that works with both dry herbs and waxy concentrates.If you’re a beginner trying to get into vaping, the APX […]


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A new Enterprise Ireland Competitive Start Fund has been launched for the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
The fund is targeting early stage companies and startups in the agri-business sectors to stimulate startup activity in the industry. Successful applicants will receive up to €50,000 of early stage funding to launch new products in in the international marketplace.
Business and employment Minister Ged Nash said: “New businesses create two-thirds of all new jobs in the economy, and we have made a deliberate decision to support more start-ups in sectors where we have real established strengths. In Ireland we have very strong agricultural and manufacturing sectors. This fund will make a real contribution to supporting more businesses and ultimately more jobs in these important sectors.”
Ged Nash, Business and Employment Minister; Denis Duggan, Enterprise Ireland; Niall Austin, Founder, Moocall at the launch of Competitive Start Fund
Applications are open to individuals and early stage companies operating in the agri-business sector, including machine design and manufacturing; fabrication, engineering and technical activities; life sciences products with application in the agri-sector; farm-related software and related services; vet-pharma, animal health and chemical products. Early stage food companies with the potential to export are also encouraged to apply.
The fund is part of Enterprise Ireland’s strategy for increasing the number of High Potential Start-Up Companies (HPSUs) with the potential to employ more than 10 people and achieve €1m in export sales within three years.
John O’Dea, Enterprise Ireland, said: “This fund is the first of its type specifically targeting the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, and will provide a package of financial and developmental supports for early stage and potential start-ups. Applications will be considered on a competitive basis and the financial support will be in the form of equity investment.”
Applications open Wednesday, September 16 and close on September 30.


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Hino Motors Ltd, a Toyota Motor Corp group truck maker, is considering teaming up with Swedish peer Scania AB to expand their global sales networks, a Hino official said.
Hino Motors plans to start selling its four-ton-class trucks in South Korea as early as next spring using Scania's sales network in the country, the official said.
If realised, it will be the first time a Japanese automaker stages a full entry into the South Korean truck market, according to Hino.
The official said Hino has already applied for a license to sell its trucks in South Korea.
The official said the two truck makers plan to supply each other trucks and sell them via their sales channels in other Asian countries, South America and elsewhere.
Hino and Scania have already worked closely in some business areas, including in the distribution of Scania tractors in Japan through Hino's sales network.
The companies have been trying to expand their partnership in the area of global sales, the official said.


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There are few items corporations showcase to generate social signaling, as a way of influencing and molding society in conjunction with governments. For instance, despite BLM riots and looting causing up to $2 billion in damages, a new record in insurance claims, the corporate sector trumpeted the movement at full speed. The same has been true for women’s rights over the decades.
KPMG, the world’s third-largest accounting firm, with $32 billion annual revenue and over 236k employees, has embraced NFTs as a brand-new vehicle to support the women’s cause. The tax auditing company picked World of Women (WoW) for their first NFT venture.
What Is the World of Women NFT Collection?
With a floor price of Ξ8.8 ($25.6k), Yam Karkai created World of Women to celebrate representation and equal treatment. Although it hails inclusivity as a virtue, World of Women is a female-only collection consisting of 10k NFTs depicting women of various stripes and colors. Of course, these depictions are of “diverse and powerful women.”
So far, WoW generated Ξ54,629 ($159.35 million) in sales, ranking the collection among the top 20, at 19th rank by all-time sales volume across 5.1k buyers out of 10k NFTs available. Although released last summer in July, WoW’s most successful sales month happened this January, peaking at $69.5 million.
No doubt, the recent partnership with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company will further boost these numbers. The Hollywood A-lister will make some of the WoW characters into feature films and TV shows. And that is not all. WoW already has support from BAYC’s Yuga Labs, Madonna, and even the iconic U2 rock band, notable for its global charity events.
Which WoW NFT Did KPMG Buy?
Canada’s branch of the international accounting corporation, with 10k employees and 40 offices, bought Woman #2681 for Ξ6.79 ($19,883.56).
KPMG’s Nancy Chase, Partner and National Risk Consulting Leader, was in charge of the pick. She explained the decision, noting that women are still underrepresented in the crypto/NFT community at large.
“We hope that our purchase draws more women into a sector that’s on the cusp of changing how we interact with one another in the future.”
Furthermore, KPMG is taking advantage of this opportunity to advise their clients on corporate NFT strategy. That is, how to properly select, manage and safeguard these illiquid digital assets. On a final note, according to ArtTactic, women make up only 16% of the NFT art market. This is quite odd considering that women greatly outnumber men at almost all colleges in developed nations.
One would think that higher education would serve as an on-ramp for technologies that push the envelope, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be the case with digital assets.
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2013 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards winners announced
25 June 2013 @booksandpublishing
The winners of the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards were announced at a ceremony in Christchurch on 24 June. The winners are: New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Into the River (Ted Dawe, Mangakino University Press) Young Adult Fiction category winner Into the River...
Category: Local news


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After much fanfare the Pebble smartwatch made the leap from fanciful concept to full-fledged product earlier this year, but now that units have started to ship and people have started to wear them, what’s Pebble’s next step?
Why, enticing developers, of course. Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky noted in a backer update video released earlier this morning that an early version of the smartwatch’s watchface SDK would be made available to would-be Pebble developers during the second week of April.
And when I say “early version,” I mean early version. At this stage it’s being looked at as more a proof-of-concept release than anything else, and Migicovsky points out that there’s a “99% chance” that the team will revamp some of the underlying APIs involved. What’s more, anyone expecting the ability to use the SDK preview to tap into the Pebble’s sensors and radios (like the accelerometer for tracking movement) will come away disappointed — the release is geared strictly toward new watchfaces, though Migicovsky says that games are also fair game as they rely mostly on button inputs.
The early SDK has been in testing with “hacker” backers — a group of about 100 people who pledged $ 235 or more for the privilege of early tinkering rights — for the past few months, and some of the apps they’ve created will be released alongside the SDK. The most notable new app? A low-res (and therefore faithful) reproduction of Snake that hearkens back to Nokia’s feature phone glory days.
Granted, new watchfaces may not seem like the most crucial addition even to Pebble buffs, but the impending release marks a pretty dramatic shift in scope for the Pebble team. What once started as a company whose daily operations were completely dictated by the need to manufacture and ship over $ 10 million worth of gadgets is now a company gearing up to focus on the next stage of the Pebble’s life cycle: building up the app ecosystem so the value of owning a Pebble extends beyond the wow factor of wearing a tiny e-paper display on your wrist. Migicovsky concedes that Pebble hasn’t “done the best job so far of communicating with developers,” but the team looks very willing to change that — hopefully a full-blown version of the SDK shows up sooner rather than later.
Mountain View’s mapping service is back on iOS, but Google’s cartography team isn’t content with launching a standalone app: it wants to worm its way into other developer’s apps, too. Leveraging a URL scheme, Google Maps’ iOS SDK allows developers to call up its own navigation application in favor of iOS 6′s offering. The SDK also demonstrates how to perform a quick check to make sure Google Maps is installed, allowing apps to default to Apple’s solution if it isn’t found. Developers looking for a more integrated solution can request access to API keys that will allow their apps to natively utilize Google’s cartography in 2D and 3D views. Its a subtle hand to play, but the update SDK gives developers more control over the experience they offer to users, a good thing, to be sure. Looking for access to the new API? Register your interest at Google’s developer site — its doling to access to qualified developers as API keys become available.
Editor’s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and writer for Engadget. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals.
Like a Kickstarter campaign, Apple’s embrace of technologies tends to be an all-or-nothing affair. The company was early to support Wi-Fi and now supports Bluetooth throughout its product line. However, it has remained at an arm’s length from technologies, such as Blu-ray, DLNA, wireless charging and NFC. Apple VP Phil Schiller has said it’s not clear what NFC is good for. The answer: lots of things, mostly having to do with initiating different kinds of transactions, including payments and Wi-Fi transfers.
Some of those things should soon be possible with the aid of the Kickstarter project by Miami-based NFC wizards Flomio and its project FloJack. It’s not a device that enables you to track stolen boats with GPS. Rather, in the spirit of the Square credit card reader, it is a small white lollipop of a device that plugs into the headphone jack of mobile iOS or legacy Android mobile device and allows it to read and write data via NFC. The company has wisely avoided getting wrapped up in payments at this point, but it is supporting other NFC functionality, such as tag reading via Samsung’s TecTiles or its own similar Zapps.
The Flomio Kickstarter page includes a four-minute intro video that takes prospective backers through a cutesy “NFC party” in which iOS devices aren’t on the guest list, the standard CAD-drawing development segment and a concept “day in the life” where we see shoppers tapping FloJacks to access special deals. Still, the FloJack campaign started off slow, no doubt leading many backers to wistfully wonder, “Flomio, wherefore art thou?” The Kickstarter campaign has come down to the wire, with about $ 6,000 needed to reach the $ 80,0000 funding goal needed in the next 60 hours as of this writing.
When one breaks down the backers at this point, most have gone for either the $ 99 FloJack dev kit or the $ 49 FloJack pack for NFC enthusiasts. The real boost, though (half of the project’s funding), has come from three backers who have shelled out $ 10,000 each to have Flomio help them create NFC applications and a fourth who shelled out the same amount to have Flomio build them something while they take in a Miami Heat game and relax on the beach — nice work if you can get it done for you.
Like its longer-range radio brethren Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, NFC is best integrated not only into the casing of the phone, but into its operating system as well, which is exactly why Android and Windows Phone have taken that approach. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth USB sticks for laptops lacking those technologies proved that point, and the situation is even worse with a mobile phone, where a need for portability and personal style is at a premium.
Sweetening the deal and taking advantage of a Kickstarter campaign that enables owners to change rewards midstream, the clever Flomio team added a new option, the FloCase. This wraps a FloJack-style NFC reader/writer into an iPhone case. It makes for a far better solution in which you don’t have to be as concerned about the FloJack slipping out of or even breaking off in the headphone jack, which remains free for audio output.
Not only has Flomio been smart about its Kickstarter rules, but it’s also recognized that, for NFC to do anything, it must be supported with an SDK. Flomio’s works across platforms. However, at some point Apple will no doubt support NFC or something like it for transactions, and at that point Flomio will likely have to focus more on its own custom development work. Unil that time, though, developers may be willing to deal with a little protrusion from their iDevices in order to get a taste of at least some of the promise of NFC.Related Posts:
Microsoft put on a show for 2,500 developers at its Seattle headquarters last week, with a focus on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. It was the culmination of a huge launch period for the software giant, the biggest since Windows 95. After wooing crowds in New York with its Surface and Windows 8 launch, it was time to talk all things code and development at Build.
A massive outdoor tent, with an area equal to around 12 NBA basketball courts, set the stage for a week of developer sessions and a focus on what will be a crucial area for Microsoft: apps. CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the conference with a smile and free Surface and Windows Phone 8 devices for developers. “This is a lot of fun,” he remarked before joking about the weather in…
It’s no secret that Facebook saw FarmVille for iOS as writing on the wall: it had to either tap into mobile app revenue or risk losing income (and marketing-savvy developers) whenever someone left the web. Following a beta this summer, the company’s solution to its dilemma is now open to everyone. All developers on the social network can build ads that link from Facebook’s Android and iOS apps to either Google Play or the App Store — offering both an easy plug for their native apps and that all-important ad revenue for Facebook. The system currently takes a shotgun approach and may pitch social networkers for apps they already have or don’t want, but it should be refined in the next few months to where some curious purchasers won’t even have to leave Facebook to load that hot new title. Hopefully the increased recognition for mobile developers is worth sullying our once pristine news feeds.
As we approach the consumer release of Windows 8, Microsoft has made one final push to bring in developers by opening the Windows Store in 82 additional markets, including Argentina and Vietnam. Now developers from a total of 120 markets can submit and publish “Modern UI” apps created for the soon-to-be-released operating system. The company also introduced additional subscription programs: eligible MSDN members will get their Windows Store developer account fee waived for a year, students can enroll in the free Dreamspark program, while businesses are able to sign up for a BizSpark account.
With the release of Windows 8 set for October 26th, time is running short for developers who want to get in on the ground level. For those looking…
You’ve already got plenty of options if you’re in the market for a developer board, but it might be worth taking a look at the new $ 49 Cubieboard, which packs quite the specs given its price point. The board hosts a 1GHz AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 CPU with Mali-400 GPU, 1GB of RAM and 4 gigs of onboard storage. For ins and outs, you’re looking at 1080p HDMI, Ethernet, one MultiMediaCard (MMC) slot, a SATA port, two USB hosts, an IR sensor and 96 extender pins for solder junkies. Cubieboard’s Wiki page lists an additional MMC slot and USB OTG, but as this doesn’t check out in the pictures, we assume they’ve either been scrapped, or they’ll be added on for later production runs. As you would expect, several versions of Linux and Android are supported by the Raspberry Pi bully, which is expected to start shipping to select developers sometime this week. There’s no word on when it may be available for general consumption, but by then you’ll hopefully have a better product anyway — if the pros have done their job, that is.
Filed under: Misc
Microsoft is openly courting developers dumped in mass layoffs by cloud gaming service OnLive, hosting a mixer for potential hires at its Mountain View campus. “We are eager to speak to individuals and teams affected by the OnLive transition,” reads a description on events site EventBrite. “With the stunning success of Xbox/Kinect and the accelerated growth of this business, we are looking to add key players who want to make a real impact in creating groundbreaking new products and services.”
According to the company, positions are available both in Mountain View and at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The open call for talent is particularly interesting given Microsoft’s history with OnLive — an alleged company…
It’s taken just over a month for Nokia to get everything in place, but its now announced that around 50 “world-class imaging specialists” have joined Espoo’s already substantial mobile imaging department, alongside a stack of Scalado’s technologies and intellectual property. The imaging specialist’s co-founder, Sami Niemi, who will now head up the Capture and Relive section of Smart Devices at Nokia, said: “The technologies and competences we’ve developed should help move from taking photos to capturing memories and emotions.” (We’re sure those hulking PureView sensors will help too.) Take a look at Nokia’s brief statement on its future in mobile imaging after the break.


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Its not that we see such a hype for the non-growing D-Segment sedan segment in India frequently. However, the new Octavia seems to have bucked the trend and has received an overwhelming initial response.
It seems people have found the connect what the earlier Octavia left. In an official communication, Skoda informs us that the new Octavia has registered over 1000 bookings within a small span of 3 weeks since the car was launched in India. Interestingly, Skoda calls the new Octavia a C+ segment car! (Now which C-segment car in India starts for 15 Lakhs and goes over 20 Lakhs on road!)
Octavia sports 3 engines – 140PS 1.4L TSI and 180PS 1.8L TSI in petrol and 320Nm 2.0L TDI in diesel. It gets both automatic as well as manual transmission options and in both fuels. Octavia is the first car from Skoda which carries its latest design language in India,
A few days back Skoda also launched online booking of Octavia which would have definitely helped pull up some figures. It would be an interesting read when we will come to know Octavia’s ultimate sales out of these bookings.
Currently, Skoda is concentrating a lot on Rapid and Octavia and has launched many customer oriented initiatives to pull people to its showrooms.
Octavia, in terms of specs, does seem to be a real game changer in the segment and we wish it does well.